Media and Press

Instream: Harney Basin Groundwater Protection Hits Major Milestone

This article originally appeared in the spring 2026 issue of WaterWatch of Oregon’s Instream newsletter. In December, the state designated the Harney Basin a Critical Groundwater Area with the adopted rules for cutting back groundwater pumping to stabilize groundwater levels by 2058. This marks a major step forward for Oregon groundwater policy, and the culmination

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Proposed Reservoir in Willamette Valley Near Silverton Rejected Again

By Mateusz Perkowski  |  April 16, 2026  |  Capital Press A proposal to build a new 12,000 acre-foot irrigation reservoir in Oregon’s Willamette Valley has again failed to pass muster with state water regulators. The East Valley Water District had urged the Oregon Water Resources Commission to authorize the project, which would inundate nearly 400

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Homes On the Range and Threats to Federal Public Land — Including Mt. Hood National Forest

By Alex Heard  |  April 15, 2026  |  RE:PUBLIC Last March, the Trump administration announced an initiative to build affordable housing on federal property. Then it went quiet. An innovative idea, or another attempt at a public lands selloff? For staffers at conservation groups like The Wilderness Society and Defenders of Wildlife, the daily routine

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Southern Oregon Dam Operators Face Intensifying Legal Battles After 2023 Lamprey Killing

By Alex Baumhardt  |  March 23, 2026  |  Oregon Capital Chronicle The legal fights are the result of a host of violations the Winchester Dam operators are accused of during botched repairs that left half a million lamprey dead. Legal fights over the future of a small southern Oregon dam are intensifying in the wake

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KBOO News In Depth: John DeVoe from WaterWatch of Oregon on Data Centers and Water Usage in The Dalles

By Rachael Garcia and KBOO Staff  |  March 3, 2026  |  KBOO Radio On this edition of KBOO News in Depth, KBOO’s Rachael Garcia speaks with John DeVoe from WaterWatch of Oregon about the impact of data centers on fresh water in Oregon, and the congressional action to give the City of The Dalles 150

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Oregon’s “Terrible” Snowpack Could Lead to Early Irrigation Season

By Kyle Odegard  |  March 2, 2026  |  Capital Press Oregon’s snowpack looked “terrible” roughly one month from when it should hit its peak, and that could contribute to drought and wildfires and cause irrigation problems, said Larry O’Neill, Oregon state climatologist. The state’s snow-water equivalent was 32 percent of the median from 1991 to

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Oregon Bill Bars Public Bodies from Helping Privatize Federal Lands

By Tracy Loew  |  Feb. 14, 2026  |  Salem Statesman Journal Oregon legislators are considering a bill that would prohibit public bodies from spending resources to help sell or transfer federal public lands to private interests. “National public lands belong to all Americans, including all Oregonians,” said Fiona Noonan of Central Oregon LandWatch at a

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HB 4006 Would Exempt Umatilla Irrigators from Important Laws, Set Dangerous Precedent

By Mateusz Perkowski  |  Feb. 11, 2026  |  Capital Press Environmentalists oppose House Bill 4006 , which would allow irrigators who rely on three pipeline projects in Northeast Oregon to more flexibly manage the “color of water” drawn from the river. Several environmental groups claim a bill meant to simplify government oversight of irrigation from

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Critics of HB 4049 Say It Would Sideline Water Regulators in the Harney Basin

By Alejandro Figueroa  |  Feb. 11, 2026  |  Oregon Public Broadcasting “House Bill 4049 is an attempt by the irrigators to circumvent the authority and expertise of agency staff and scientists and instead plead their case for higher pumping levels to the Oregon Water Resources Commission,” said Lisa Brown, an attorney for WaterWatch of Oregon.

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The Dalles’ Mayor Called OPB’s Data Center Story Inaccurate — Here Are the Facts

By April Ehrlich  |  Jan. 23, 2026  |  Oregon Public Broadcasting Last week, OPB published an investigation into The Dalles’ efforts to expand its water reservoir in the Mount Hood National Forest at the same time that Google expands its footprint in the north-central Oregon city. OPB’s reporting covered two agreements signed between The Dalles

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As Google Water Demands Grow, The Dalles Aims to Pull More Water from the Mount Hood National Forest

By April Ehrlich  |  Jan. 15, 2026  |  Oregon Public Broadcasting The Dalles is trying to expand its water reservoir — and it’s turning to Congress in a quest to acquire part of the Mount Hood National Forest to do so. That’s prompting concerns from environmental groups and local residents. They’re worried both about the

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Judge Allows ODFW to Order WWCD to Fix Winchester Dam Fish Ladder by 2028

By Gloria Coleman  |  Dec. 26, 2025  |  Roseburg News-Review The Winchester Water Control District (WWCD) was told to start work next week on improving the fish passage in the Winchester Dam to be consistent with current standards, but an appeal might change all that. An Office of Administrative Hearings ruling issued by Senior Administrative

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When the People’s Water Vanishes

By Alec del Pino Gil-Casares  |  Dec. 26, 2025 |  Harvard Political Review While prompting your AI chatbot does not directly use water, many data centers rely on evaporative cooling to keep their computing chips, in charge of processing, manipulating, and transforming data, at a functioning temperature, consuming millions of gallons of potable water every day.

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Water Rights Dispute Clears Hurdle as Former County Commissioner Seeks Mining Transfer

By John Oliver  |  Dec. 16, 2025 |  Grants Pass Tribune A long-running dispute over a water right tied to a 65-acre property in Josephine County has reached a significant turning point, with state regulators declining to cancel the water right despite objections from environmental advocates. The decision clears one legal obstacle for property owners

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Oregon’s Harney Basin is Now a Critical Groundwater Area — Here’s What That Means

By Alejandro Figueroa  |  Dec. 12, 2025 |  Oregon Public Broadcasting Farmers in Harney County have come to rely on an aquifer that has long been known to be in serious decline. Now, Oregon water regulators will make drastic changes to how much water they can draw from the ground, following more than two years

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Stakeholder Proposal for Harney Groundwater Rejected by Oregon Regulators

By Mateusz Perkowski  |  Dec. 12, 2025 |  Capital Press Critics of the state’s adopted plan say it doesn’t protect the region’s ag-based economy. A petition seeking alternative rules to stabilize groundwater levels in Oregon’s Harney basin has failed to persuade regulators, who instead adopted the strategy preferred by a state agency. Though the Oregon

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Oregon Water Regulators Recommend Against Rejecting Irrigation Reservoir

By Mateusz Perkowski  |  Dec. 11, 2025 |  Capital Press Water board will take testimony, but says it has grounds to deny application. Oregon water regulators are proposing to again reject a new irrigation reservoir in the Willamette Valley, though they plan to hear additional arguments before making a final decision. The Oregon Water Resources

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Instream: Years of Work Pay Off with Important Precedent in Drift Creek Reservoir Case

This article originally appeared in the autumn 2025 issue of WaterWatch of Oregon’s Instream newsletter. A proposal to build a new dam and reservoir on Drift Creek, a tributary to the Pudding River in Marion County, is heading back to the Oregon Water Resources Commission — but only after setting an important precedent for protection

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Irrigators, Tribes, Local Officials Push Back Against State Proposal to Curb Harney Basin Groundwater Crisis

By Alejandro Figueroa  |  Sept. 29, 2025  |  OPB A coalition of irrigators, tribes and local governments organized under state Rep. Mark Owens — a Republican from Harney County and a farmer — recently filed a petition asking the Oregon Water Resources Commission to consider a different set of rules that diverges from regulators own

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Alternative Proposed to Harney Basin Groundwater Restrictions

By Mateusz Perkowski  |  Sept. 18, 2025 |  Capital Press WaterWatch continues to express skepticism over a proposed regulatory scheme to boost groundwater in the Harney basin. Irrigators and other water users are advocating for alternative groundwater restrictions to be adopted in Oregon’s Harney basin rather than those proposed by state regulators. The coalition, which

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Oregon Supreme Court Rules Water Rights for Proposed Dam Were Improperly Denied

By Bill Poehler  |  Aug. 12, 2025 |  Salem Statesman Journal The Oregon Supreme Court remanded the Oregon Water Resources Commission’s denial of water rights by the East Valley Water District. The Oregon Water Resources Commission must reconsider its denial of a proposed dam in farmland south of Silverton, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled on

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Oregon Supreme Court Orders Reconsideration of Irrigation Reservoir Denial

By Mateusz Perkowski  |  Aug. 8, 2025  |  Capital Press Read WaterWatch of Oregon’s corresponding press release on the Oregon Supreme Court decision. An irrigation district must get another chance to persuade Oregon water regulators to approve a new Willamette Valley reservoir, according to a recent state Supreme Court ruling. The East Valley Water District’s

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